Monday, June 1, 2009

Rockin' On With Our Bad Selves!

All work and no play makes life kinda dull so every once in awhile you gotta break out of the mold and do something different just for fun, right? That's exactly what I did this past Saturday evening when I went over for a cook-out at Jason & Amy's that also included several other friends from work.

Jason & Amy's house, not too far from my own, is basically Amanda's second home as she goes over there pretty much every weekend to hang out with Cate, Jay's daughter who is a teenager the same age as Amanda and who shares a lot of the same likes as her - Dr. Who, Creature Feature, MSI, The Umbrella Academy, and a lot of other stuff. Jason is lovingly referred to as Amanda's surrogate Dad and Amy, who is an even bigger animal lover than Amanda, is a wicked cool person that Amanda just adores. Honestly, I couldn't ask for better people for her to hang out with on weekends if I tried!

Anyhow, sometimes during the nicer weather Jason & Amy like to invite folks over for a cook-out so that Jay can use his very nice barbeque grill and I can make potato salad! I love going to these get-togethers at their house as it's a chance to say hi to Amy's Mom, eat good food, and hang out with some of the other people from work outside of ... well ... work!

This past Saturday's cook-out included Amy's Mom, newlyweds John & Christine, Pete & his wife Mary along with their two boys, myself & Amanda, Jason, Amy, & Cate as well as a special appearance by Cate's "boyfriend" David (which in itself would require a whole 'nuther post!). While the adults went outside to enjoy the sunshine and adult converation, the kids stayed inside and played Rock Band 2 on the XBox 360.

That is until the "adults" decided it was time to kick the kids off of the game and take over the instruments themselves. John and Pete both have XBoxes at home and play Guitar Hero/Rock Band with their kids and, as some of you may recall, I've played a bit myself. It had been a long time, though, since I'd picked up a guitar so I had a feeling I was going to be rusty but I was definitely up for the challenge. Somehow or other, Amanda ended up playing with myself, John, and Pete while the other adults and kids made up the audience.

When we first started out I was playing lead guitar, Amanda covered bass, John was keeping the beat on the drums, and Pete ... Pete was attempting to sing. The guy is a great medic who does a fine job providing quality Advanced Life Support to all those whom he is sent to treat but as far as being a singer, Pete is a great medic who does a fine job providing quality Advanced Life Support to all those whom he is sent to treat! Honestly, he was starting to make me sound a'ight, dawg - which is good because the microphone was later passed on to me so that Pete could "do better" on the guitar. Oh boy.

Now I will be the first to tell you that I am not a singer even though I sorely wish I was; I can carry a tune in a bucket but that's where it needs to stay - in the bucket! However, what's a little embarrassment between friends? And I did warn them ahead of time that their ears might bleed a little! So, the trade-off was made, Pete took over the guitar while I took over the microphone, and even though I was doing my best impression of a bag of wailing cats I still managed to score 100% on the Pet Benatar song that we played. Whoo-whaa! Nothing for nothing but it's not easy switching between Judas Priest, Disturbed, Boston, FreezePop, Paramour, and a bunch of others I can't remember - especially when you're laughing hysterically in between songs!

Still, we had a great time while Amy was taking pictures of a band that looked, as Jay said, like we were sponsored by Ensure and Geritol! The pictures ended up making their way onto Amy's Facebook page so I figured they were fair game and grabbed them to make the following video for your amusement enjoyment. Luckily no one had a video camera but if they had, I can guarantee you that the last thing I would be posting on my blog is a video of myself trying to sing! Trust me on that one!

A big thank you to Jason & Amy for a really fun Saturday evening; I can't remember when I've laughed that much! And as to my other band mates, let's do it again sometime - when's the reunion tour?!?

15 comments:

Awesome! That would be my kind of evening. I'm not a Pat Benatar, but I must *humbly* admit that I can sing. I used to do karaoke almost every weekend. Boy, it must have been at least 5 years since my last one...